Rather than presenting a general “science-fictiony” scene, the cover presents an illustration inspired by Poul Anderson’s “The Man Who Came Early” from appeared in the June, 1956 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and anthologized in this sixth series of stories from the magazine.
Like the great majority of Anderson’s work – at least, what I’ve read of Anderson! – The Man Who Came Early is excellently written, and of greater import, tackles with profound social, psychological, and philosophical questions, all the more impressive in that these are manifested in the form of a short story, rather than a book or novelette. Though ostensibly a tale of science-fiction, themes of technology and science, whether real or conjectural are not really the tale’s focus – this is emphatically not “hard” science fiction! – and only serve as a brief and opening springboard to set the plot in motion. An air of inevitability emerges as the story progresses, and it concludes on a note of pathos, which perhaps makes it all the more effective, and, memorable.
(The copy originally serving as this post’s image – see at bottom; rather bent and worn; I purchased it at a flea market in the 1970s! – has now been supplanted by a scan of a copy in far better condition.)
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The Cosmic Expense Account, by Cyril M. Kornbluth
Mr. Sakrison’s Halt, by Mildred Clingerman
The Asa Rule, by Jay Williams
King’s End, by Avram Davidson
The Census Takers, by Frederik Pohl
The Man Who Came Early, by Poul Anderson
Final Clearance, by Rachel Maddux
The Silk and The Song, by Charles L. Fontenay
The Shoddy Lands, by C.S. Lewis
The Last Present, by Will Stanton
No Man Pursueth, by Ward Moore
I Don’t Mind, by Ron Smith
The Barbarian, by Poul Anderson
And Now The News…, by Theodore Sturgeon
Icarus Montgolfier Wright, by Ray Bradbury
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6/19
